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A comment on Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?.

Re:Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + su... by LPTS on Monday June 16, 2008 @02:47PM (#218947)
I guess it depends on the job, but I can't stand people in suits. It's so obsolete now. That kind of tired attention to surface conformity only encourages the same old thinking that is responsible for everything sucking. Wear what is comfortable and looks decent. The sooner the puritanical idea that you have to dress yourself in that ridiculous, uncomfortable costume and prance around like some peacock samurai in full ceremonial garb to be a serious job applicant dies, the better off we will all be.

Don't view the cover letter as artifical. View it as the HR guy will spend two minutes looking at it while waiting for his internet porn to download. What do you have to say about yourself that is so compelling he'll not notice when two minutes pas and his porn finished downloading because he's still looking at your resume. I'll give you a hint, it's not that you wake up early.

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Re:Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + su... by sspencer on Monday June 16, 2008 @04:47PM (#219097)
You can't stand people in suits? Why do you even care?

Let actions speak rather than clothes. I've known programmers who wore fastidiously cut suits and programmers who wore birks and cutoffs. Both clothing classifications produced fast, capable, flexible programmers who could think on their feet, and both classes also produced morons who couldn't code their way out of a paper bag.

Look beyond the surface and you will end up hiring a much higher quality programmer.

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Re:Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + su... by LPTS on Monday June 16, 2008 @06:09PM (#219180)
You are right, I was wrong. I was overly rhetorical.

If you like to wear suits, by all means. Sometimes a really nice button down shirt and nice pants feels good.

What really gets me is mandatory dress codes that don't have anything to do with the work getting done, and the outdated thinking that wearing nice clothes means anything. If that's how you are comfortable, please.

[ Parent | on HN ]